Physicians and other healthcare professionals spend much of their time recording information about patients rather than on actually caring for patients. Such information generally takes the form of observations that are then recorded as part of the patient's medical record so that later attending caregivers can be kept up-to-date on the patient's prior condition and care. Popular understanding envisions the medical record as a form in a clipboard that is kept in a pocket at the foot of a patient's bed or outside a exam room, and on which the caregiver scribbles with a pen before leaving the patient's room.
Electronic medical records (EMRs) have largely replaced traditional paper-based records in most healthcare systems. But healthcare workers are not particularly adept typists, nor do they want to have to carry a keyboard with them or move to a keyboard every time they have to enter data into an EMR. As a result, physicians frequently dictate their observations into small electronic tape or flash-based voice records and provide the tapes or files to trained transcriptionists for manual typing of the information. Such transcription can be costly, can create problems in ensuring that the proper information is joined to the proper patient's record, and includes inherent delays.
Thus, automated transcription has been used, with programs such as DRAGON NATURALLY SPEAKING and VIA VOICE providing particular healthcare-related modules. Still, such automated transcription can make errors, even after a healthcare provider has spent time “training” the system to learn his or her voice.